imago of a queer artist* Educational and Accessibility Materials (download here)
Created through a series of drawings, paintings, sculpture, and personal objects, imago of a queer artist* offers space for an expanded notion of queerness as the capacity for porousness, fluidity, and transformation. The exhibition’s title (abbreviated here) is a deliberate tool providing a conceptual framework for the show and responding to overwhelming systems of categorization used in the art world (and in larger discussions around identity politics). The need to assign labels within conversations around representation, while sometimes intended to improve clarity and communication, often creates rigid and pre-conceived images to which one is forced to adhere.
Drawing upon their own research, as well as the work of writers, scientists, theorists, and thinkers who have served as companions along the way, Levani re-imagines, in community, a more holistic way of being in the world. As such, the story of imago of a queer artist* will be told through a polyphony of voices that move between borders, generations, traditions, and time to propose a new state of existence– shifting, breaking down, reconstituting–to become whole.
A multitude of perspectives will be shared through documents, book launches, talks, and poetry readings brought together by the artist as a series of public programs offered free of charge, within the space of the exhibition at Cuchifritos Gallery.
About the Artist
Levani (Levan Mindiashvili) is a Tbilisi-born, New York-based transdisciplinary artist. They hold MFA from Buenos Aires National University of Arts (IUNA) and BFA from Tbilisi State Academy of Arts. Levani’s previous exhibitions include “Nested in a Place of Becoming” at Kunsthalle Tbilisi, Georgia; “what color is the Black Sea?” at Marisa Newman Projects NY; “Levani’s Room: HOME,” at Spring Break Art Show NY; “I should have kissed you longer” at TAF Tbilisi; “Here” at the Georgian National Museum, Mestia; “in-Between” at Silk Museum, Tbilisi; “In Search of the Miraculous” at NADA Miami; “WHO IS PLUTO” at SubtitledNYC, Brooklyn; “The earth leaked red ochre” at Miriam Gallery, Brooklyn; 5th AIM Biennial at the Bronx Museum of the Arts; Fridman Gallery, NY; “Sanctuary” at the Socrates Sculpture Park, Queens, NY; 1st Immigrant Artists Biennial at Elizabeth Foundation for Arts, NY; Below Grand, NY; 7th Beijing Biennial at National Art Museum of China; “two trees and a leaf” at East Slovak Gallery, Kosovo; “Aesthetics of Repair” at Tartu Art Museum, Estonia; BRIC Biennial, Vol 3.; and others.
Levani is a recipient of the Artist Alliance Inc. LES Studio Program residency, Two Trees BSI fellowship, Socrates Sculpture Park Fellowship, Peter S. Reed Foundation Grant, NYFA IAMP fellowship, AIM Fellowship of the Bronx Museum of the Arts, Creative Times X Summit Grant, NARS Foundation Studio Residency, FABLES Commission grant for Public Art Projects from National Endowments for Arts, and Movistar Arte Joven emerging artist prize. Their work was featured in publications Frieze, Art in America, BOMB, Brooklyn Rail, HYPERALLERGIC, ArtAsia Pacific, ARTPAPERS, The Art Newspaper, Pin-UP Magazine, OSMOS, Observer, Art Margins, Cool Hunting, Artnet, Vogue Ukraine, Forbes Ukraine, Baltic Worlds, and others.
Levani’s work is in public collections of the National Art Museum of China, Beijing; Georgian National Museum, Mestia; and Tbilisi Silk Museum, Georgia.
Exhibition support provided by Vida Signs
Special thanks to David Lomtadze, Simon Gamgebeli, Papuna Dabrundashvili, Teri Newman, Lulu Meng, and Emilie Sano. The exhibition title font, Lÿno, is designed by Karl Nawrot and Radim Peško. RP Digital Type Foundry, 2023.
Cuchifritos Gallery is supported in part by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. Exhibition programming is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature and the National Endowment for the Arts. We thank the New York City Economic Development Corporation and individual supporters of Artists Alliance Inc for their continued support. Special thanks vto our team of dedicated volunteers and interns, without whom this program would not be possible.